Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington

Henry Gerard Sturt, 1st Baron Alington (16 May 1825 – 17 February 1904), was a British peer, Conservative Party politician, and notorious slum landlord in the East End of London.

The Lord Alington
"Bunny". Caricature by "Spy" (Leslie Ward) published in Vanity Fair in 1876.
Member of Parliament
for Dorset
In office
1856–1876
Member of Parliament
for Dorchester
In office
1847–1856
Personal details
Born
Henry Gerard Sturt

(1825-05-16)16 May 1825
Died17 February 1904(1904-02-17) (aged 78)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouses
  • Augusta Bingham
    (m. 1853)
  • Evelyn Herietta Leigh
    (m. 1892)
Children
Parent
OccupationPolitician, landowner

Early life

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He was the son of Henry Sturt, a landowner and politician from Dorset. His father purchased the Lordship of Motcombe, Dorset. His family retained the lordship into the 20th century.[1] He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1843.[2]

Political career

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He was elected to Parliament in 1847 for Dorchester, and re-elected in 1852. In 1856, one of the Conservative MPs for the county of Dorset died. Sturt resigned his Dorchester seat and was elected to the vacant Dorset seat in a by-election. He was re-elected in 1857, 1859, 1865, 1868, and 1874. On 15 January 1876, he was created Baron Alington, of Crichel, and thereafter sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer.

Marriages and children

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Sturt was twice married. On 10 September 1853, he wed his first cousin, Lady Augusta Bingham, daughter of George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan and Lady Anne Brudenell. They had three children:

On 10 February 1892, Sturt wed Evelyn Henrietta Leigh.

East End landlord

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Amongst other holdings, various branches of the family had owned land in London's East End for centuries and the first Lord Alington's son, second Lord Alington "was still in possession of all but a small portion of the combined Pitfield estates in Hoxton when these were submitted to public auction in 1917".[3]

Lord Alington was one of the private landlords specifically named in relation to the terrible conditions in the East End in the London Poverty Maps compiled by Charles Booth in the 1890s. "Some private landlords were also criticised. Infant mortality in Shoreditch, one investigator recorded, was 22 per 1000, much higher than the London average. Quoting an anonymous interviewee, he drew attention to the 'disgraceful meanness' of Lord Alington, who owned the whole parish and 'drew £20,000 from the neighbourhood'."[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ The Lordship of Motcombe, Dorset. pp 79-80. Accessed via ancestry.com 26 February 2024.
  2. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "{{{title}}}" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ Bird, James, ed. (1922). "Historical introduction: Hoxton, to the west of Hoxton Street". Survey of London. 8, Shoreditch. British History Online: 72–88. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  4. ^ Light, Alison (2 July 2020). "The general tone is purple". London Review of Books. 42 (13).
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Dorchester
1847–1856
With: George Dawson-Damer 1847–1852
Richard Brinsley Sheridan from 1852
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Dorset
1856–1876
With: Henry Ker Seymer to 1864
John Floyer to 1857
Henry Portman from 1857
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Alington
1876–1904
Succeeded by